Dark Warrior (12 page)

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Authors: Rebecca York

BOOK: Dark Warrior
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“Come to me after that.”
“If I can,” she said, pulling away from him and going back to her duties.
 
RAFE
Garrison was a master of keeping his emotions to himself—when it suited him. It made him an excellent poker player any time he sought that kind of relaxation.
This was the day he’d been waiting for. The day Bobby Ames was going to bring Tessa to him.
Then he’d get rid of the man, so there would be no one to talk about what had happened. But he’d dispose of him in a humane fashion, as a reward for a job well done.
When Ames called, Rafe knew at once that something was wrong.
“You have the package I ordered?” he asked in an even voice, unwilling to spell out his business over the phone in case someone was listening—or recording the conversation. He didn’t know who that might be, but he wasn’t going to take a chance on saying anything that could be used against him later.
“There was a problem.”
“You’d better get over here.”
“I . . .”
“Don’t think about running,” he advised. “If you do, I’ll track you down, and when I find you, you’ll wish I hadn’t.”
“I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Rafe paced back and forth, his hands balled into fists. He was fair with his employees, but he had given an assignment to Ames, and the man had failed him—twice. There must be a steep price to pay.
When Ames’s van came trundling up the driveway, Rafe stepped outside to meet him, grasping a metal cylinder in his hand, but holding his arm down by his side, the way he had after he’d forced Sophia’s SUV off the road. But this was a different formula. Something designed to put Ames out for an hour or so.
Ordering himself not to rush forward, he eyed the bullet holes in the front and side of the vehicle.
What the fuck had happened?
When Ames got out and approached him, he said, “That van I bought’s all shot up, and you don’t even have Tessa, do you?”
“I had her.” He began to talk rapidly. “I set the shavings on fire, and added the stuff to make them smoke. That worked great, and everybody was running around the spa like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. I got into the gift shop and tied her up and put that bucket over her head like you told me to do. But it fell off in the van, and one of her sisters came charging out and stopped me from leaving.”
“You idiot! I told you to make sure she couldn’t . . .” He stopped. What was he going to say? Make sure she couldn’t send a mental message to her sisters? He’d told Ames to use the bucket to confuse her and keep her from seeing where she was going. He couldn’t tell him the truth.
Instead, he asked in a deadly calm voice, “A woman kept you from taking Tessa?”
“No. It was a guy. He came roaring after the woman, pulled me out of the van, and started beating up on me. But I whacked him with my wrench and got away. Maybe I broke his skull.”
“You had Tessa. Why didn’t you take her?”
“They got her out of the van. Those women are weird. You know that. They made a circle around her. When I tried to get through, I just . . . bounced back. All I could do was get out of there.”
Rafe glanced at the bullet-riddled vehicle. “Did anyone follow you?”
“I got away clean.”
“How?”
“Busted through the gate. It’s a piece of shit.”
“And the man who fought you? Who was that? Cynthia’s boyfriend? What’s his name—Matthew Layden?”
“No. It was the new horse doctor they hired. I’ve seen him around a few times.”
“What does he look like?”
Ames thought for a moment. “Dark hair. Dark eyes. Tall. Well muscled. He . . . looks a lot like
you
, actually.”
The vet! Was
he
the guy who attacked him in the desert? He’d have to figure out where he could ambush the guy. But at the moment he was busy with this
malaka
.
“What else can you tell me . . . about the incident?”
“That’s all. Except . . .” He paused and licked his lips. “You don’t have to pay me the rest of the fee. And I’ll return the money you already gave me. That’s fair.”
“You don’t have to return the money.”
Ames let out a little breath.
“I assume you can’t get back on the property, and even if you could, they know it was you who set the fire and tried to kidnap Tessa.”
The handyman directed his gaze somewhere over Rafe’s left shoulder. “I didn’t think I had to hide my face from Tessa. I thought I’d get her out of there without any problems. But then the guy interfered, and the women came swarming around.”
“An unfortunate miscalculation on your part.”
Ames took a step back, but Rafe had already raised the cylinder and depressed the button on top, sending a cloud of spray into Ames’s face. Seconds later, he keeled over and lay still.
Rafe picked him up and slung him over his shoulder like a sack of horse feed, then carried him to the garage and dumped him into a four-wheel-drive SUV. Next he drove the van into the garage. He’d have to get rid of it later, after he took care of Ames. Maybe he’d drive it over a cliff into an arroyo.
With the vehicle hidden, he went back into the house to change.
When he was ready, he headed into the desert, to a desolate area where few ventured.
After unloading Ames onto the red dirt, he sat down in the shade of a cedar tree while he waited for the
malaka
to wake up.
But his mind was busy. He was thinking about the vet—the guy who had fought Ames. Was he really the other Minot?
There was a hitch in that theory. He’d apparently gotten into the Ionian compound with no problem. More than once, if Ames was telling the truth.
And that would be impossible. Wouldn’t it?
“Impossible,” he said aloud. Yet if he wasn’t the mystery Minot, who was? And what was special about him?
Well, it shouldn’t be hard to get the horse doctor’s name, then look up information about him, see if he had any background that would mark him as a Minot. Could he capture the guy and find out what the hell was going on?
Before he got rid of him.
He thought back to the encounter in the desert. Not his finest moment. Perhaps it wasn’t smart getting close to the man again. Maybe the thing to do was finish his business here and get out. He’d have to come up with another plan for getting Tessa, but he still had a spy on the property—which gave him a source of information.
Finally, after about forty-five minutes in the hot sun, Ames began to stir.
“Where am I?” he groaned as he sat up and rubbed his eyes.
Rafe got to his feet and stood a few yards away. When Ames spotted him, he gasped.
“What’s going on?”
Rafe wore athletic shoes. Comfortable shorts and a tank top. He could have been out for a run, except that he was holding a hunting knife.
Fear flashed in Ames’s eyes when he spotted the knife.
“Please. Don’t,” he wheezed.
“I’ll give you forty minutes’ head start,” he said. “You can take that bottle of water lying next to you. If you can get away from me, you’re free to go.”
“Please, just let me go. I did everything you asked, but it didn’t work out the way we thought.”
“I would have asked you to leave the state,” he lied, “if you’d completed your assignment. It wasn’t all that difficult, but you screwed it up. Twice.”
“Not difficult! You try getting in there with those bitches. They’re all spooky.”
“Stop whining and get out of my sight,” Rafe spat, “before I change my mind and gut you right now.”
With a look of utter terror, the man grabbed the water bottle and ran.
Rafe sat down to relax again. He had no doubt he could track Ames, and when he caught up with the sorry bastard, he was going to have a good time killing him slowly. With the knife.
Then he would make other arrangements for keeping tabs on the Ionians’ compound.
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
 
IT WAS WELL into the evening before the sisters got their guests settled down after the frightening experience with the fire. As it turned out, they’d been lucky. Damage to the spa was minimal, and they’d been able to move all their activities into another wing of the building.
Then all but the women on duty and the mothers gathered in their private lounge.
Nobody had been harmed except Jason Tyron. Still, they were shaken by the experience.
When some of the people staying at the spa had said they were leaving, the sisters gave them full refunds. They didn’t depend on the spa’s revenues for their income. Long ago they’d invested their wealth in many diversified stocks, bonds, and other ventures. And they also had large stocks of gold and precious jewels.
“We must make security our top priority,” Cynthia told the group after the women with daughters had come back from reassuring the little ones. “I think it’s safe to assume that Ames created the fire and smoke as a diversion for the attempted kidnapping,” she continued.
“Is staying open too dangerous? Should we shut down?” Ophelia asked.
“We’ll talk about that in a moment,” Cynthia answered.
“I’d feel like I was in prison if we were the only ones huddled in here,” Denada put in.
“Yes, we have to be secure without feeling . . . totally confined,” Cynthia said.
There were murmurs of agreement around the room.
Sophia glanced at Tessa, who sat in the corner with her back to two walls. Physically she was none the worse for her ordeal, but Ames had almost succeeded in getting her out of the spa, and it was obvious that she’d suffered emotional damage.
Sophia’s mind flashed back to the ceremony they’d worked. Tessa had brought up the image of a burning building. Sophia had thought it was a church. Maybe it simply represented the spa.
“The rest of you will be all right,” Tessa said in a small voice. “Ames was after me. He was probably sent by the guy who stopped Sophia out on the road. And we have to assume that attack was supposed to be against me, too.”
“We can’t know that for sure,” Eugenia answered, but Sophia wondered if her sister believed the reassurance herself.
The older Ionian looked at Sophia. “The new veterinarian prevented Ames from accomplishing his goal.”
She nodded.
“You’d met him previously?”
“Yes.”
“Could he have been working with Ames?”
The question startled Sophia, but she understood where it was coming from. “I don’t think so,” she answered. “When he found out one of the guests was trapped in the building, he ran inside to rescue her. After he brought her out, he heard me call for help and came charging over to the van and grabbed Ames—who bashed him over the head with a wrench. It was a real injury. The hospital’s keeping him overnight for observation.”
“You checked on him?”
“Yes. I called to find out how he was.” She spread her hands. “He got hurt because he was helping us.”
“When he’s here next time, see how he’s doing. And see if you can get a sense that he’s what he appears to be.”
Sophia nodded. She was thinking that perhaps Cynthia could do the same thing with her lover, Matthew Layden, but she didn’t voice the suggestion. Her mind switched back to Jason. She hadn’t been sure if she could keep away from him. Now the high priestess was ordering her to check the man out.
Of course, she already had suspicions. But she didn’t voice them, probably because she wasn’t the same woman she had been since the attack on the road. The old Sophia would have reported everything to her sisters. The new Sophia was more guarded.
And what if Cynthia asked her to stand before them at another ceremony? Could she keep them from seeing what was in her mind?
The question was unthinkable. No Ionian would do that, would she?
Cynthia turned back to Tessa. “You can take some time off from your duties,” she said.
“Thank you.”
Sophia was startled again. She’d expected Tessa to say she wanted to work to keep her mind occupied. Apparently, she did want time to herself.
“Should we try to read the future?” Ophelia asked.
“We didn’t get very far with that last time,” Tessa answered in a low voice. “Why should it work now?”
“The last time?” Cynthia asked.
Tessa looked like she wished she hadn’t opened that line of discussion.
“I asked Sophia to help me see my own future.”
“Did you?” Cynthia probed.
“I saw a fire.”
“You saw the spa burning?”
“No, another building. It looked like a church. I would have told you if I saw the spa.”

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